


Comicstuck

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck, Malice - Chris Wooding
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-28
Updated: 2014-06-24
Packaged: 2018-01-21 02:03:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1533587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Sorry for the uber crappy drawing at the end. I was rushed due to the fact that i was supposed to be leaving six minutes ago. I promise the next few ones will be better.<br/>Also if you actually happened to like that, you can find me in SassyAnge1@deviantart.com</p>
        </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Jade**  looked out the window for a brief moment, observing the dark forest that seemed to go on forever. She caught a figure moving among the shadows, most likely Bec, her dog. She sighed before turning around and facing Dave. He was one of those cool kids everyone wanted to know, but she had known him since the dawn of life itself-from irritable toddlers to sneaky kids to whining teenagers. He always had his shades on covering his naturally reddish brown eyes. His blondish white hair neatly combed back and his pale complexion radiating the light that the lamp casted. "So why exactly are we here?" She asks him, a bit confused as he grinned at her.

"Guess what I have?" He motioned for her to sit on his bed. This was a different teenage boy room, it was a little messy with plush toys scattered around -no doubt belonging to his brother- his sword collection hanging on the wall and his ironic dead bird collection stuffed in jars and kept in shelves. 

"What did you get?" Jade asked him as she walked towards his bed. 

"Guess!" She frowned at him, too tired to play the game. His brother had left to work on his night job as a dj to local clubs, so Dave had the apartment all to himself. He invited Jade over to show her something. "Or don't." He adds after seeing her expression.

"Just tell me already would you?" Jade demanded him impatiently. She looked at him as he picked up a black envelope from his desk. He turned it around and laid it on his bed right beside Jade. She examined it with disbelieve, looking at the green stamp with the house like design sealing the envelope. "Where did you get this?" She glared at him. 

"I have connections." He shrugs. "Go ahead, open it." He said sitting on his bed as well. 

When Jade stayed quiet he raised a brow at her. "I can't." She mutters. 

"Don't tell me you believe in this stuff." Dave sighs and opens the packet himself. He then offers its contents to her and gets a glare in return. He proceeded to open the packet and look inside. "Read with me?" He offered scooting in closer to sit beside her. Jade felt awful about even knowing that thing wasn't the rumor everybody made it out to be, but she wasn't about to chicken out on Dave.

"Fine." She said as she bit her lip in anxiety. He opened the comic and together they started to read. Page by page Jade felt worse and worse, she couldn't stand the gruesome things she witnessed. She felt horrid when looking at the eyes of each victim... And even though Dave clearly wasn't fazed by it, she knew he didn't like it either. The creatures circling around it's prey, scratching and biting the poor girl that had the face of fear on her. At that point Jade had yelled "Enough!" and closed the comic. 

"Jade, they aren't real people. You know that.... Right?" He asked looking at her, when she didn't respond he got up and went someplace. After a while, he came back with a bowl a twig and some cat fur. She looked at him open eyed in shock. 

"You're not actually going to do it are you?" She stood up as she said that. Dave went to his dead bird collection and pricked a feather off of one, placing it in the bowl along with the twig and cat fur. 

"Yup." He smiled getting a bottle with liquid in it, or better yet tears in it. "I got the fur at Rose's place." He said. "Her cat sheds more fur then you'd think possible." He offered no explanation for the tears in the bottle and Jade didn't want one. He placed one drop of it on the bowl and got his Swiss pocket knife out of his pocket and cut a piece of his hair.

"Dave... you don't have to prove anything." Jade said with a plea. 

"It's only a silly ritual. Do you actually believe I'll taken by Jack himself? I don't think so." Dave smirks. "Besides, you shouldn't have to fear for nothing." Dave put the hair in the bowl and took out a lighter -also from his pocket- and lit the contents in the bowl. He offered the pocket knife to Jade, but she refused to take it so he shrugged and put it back in his pocket.

"Dave..." Jade started.

"Tall Jack take me away." Dave's grin hadn't faltered, but neither had Jade's disaproving frown.

"Stop. Please?" She put a hand on his arm.

"Tall Jack take me away." He said for a second time.

"Stop this already!" Jade strengthened her grip on the arm.

"Tall Jack take me away." He had said it three times, only three more to go and he would disappear. Jade just looked at him with her heart pounding inside her chest. "Tall Jack take me away." 

Jade closed her eyes, wishing that nothing bad would happen to her dearest friend. "I don't believe okay, you can stop this now." She said hoping that will stop him, but knowing it wouldn't.

"Tall Jack take me away." Dave only needed to say it one more time to be taken by Jack and he began to doubt his beliefs that Jack wasn't real.

"Dave, don't." Dave started to feel his doubts escaping his cool facade. The first five invitations for Jack were simple and meaningless, it was the sixth one that mattered most because it was the sixth one that would condemn him to Jack.

"Tall Jack... Take me away." He said finally. Jade felt her heart skip a beat and Dave took in a deep breath closing his eyes behind his shades. 

They waited for something to happen.

But nothing came.

Dave let out a breath he didn't know he was keeping and Jade smiled gladly knowing that her dear friend was alright. However, before they could remain relaxed and change the subject... The lights went

 

Jade blinked and stood up in shock while Dave quickly thought of a logical explanation to calm his nerves. "It's probably a coincidence." He said pretending to believe it.

"Yeah. Definately that." Jade retorted sarcastically. 

"I'll go check to see what went wrong." Dave started to get back up before Jade pushed him back down.

"No Dave, Jack gets you when you're alone. You should stay here where it's safe." She sat beside him hoping he'd listen to reason. 

"You don't actually believe in that stupid story do you? Honestly Jade, the lights just went off." Dave spoke cooly as he got up and opened the door to his room. He was scared of Jack, but like hell would he seem like a coward in front of Jade, especially for some stupid story. He took in a breath and left his room, closing the door behind him and using his phone as a flashlight. He started to hear things… rats with claws would be the most accurate description…  He thought he saw something on the corner of his eyes, but whenever he looked he saw nothing. With each step he took, he felt more insecure. He should have taken his sword with him.

Finally, Dave saw a flashlight near a pile of puppets created for smut. He reached for it… but something was wrong. Quickly standing up he came face to face with a monstrosity for less then a second. It looked like someone had mutated a dog into something gruesome with wings and tentacles surrounding it, it's eyes were a hollow white and one had a scar running through it and it's face seemed to be the face of death. Dave had to be imagining things… that couldn't have been Tall Jack… They were only comics! Dave reached for the flashlight again, this time grabbing it and turning it on and feeling relief for the extra light that it casted.  He used it to find a katana from his brother's room. Feeling more secure with a weapon on his hand, Dave set out to find the power source of his humble apartment. 

His instincts were screaming at him to go back into his room with Jade, but he knew that would be cowardly of him… He forced himself to take steps away from safety… Closer and closer to the place he was now afraid of going. There was a door blocking his way, and it felt like everything was screaming at him " **DON'T OPEN THE DOOR.** "

He placed his right hand on the door's handle.

He took in a deep breath holding it in.

He turned the handle.

He opened the door slowly, seeing that monstrosity again and slamming the door.

"There's nothing there Dave." He said to himself hysterically while whipping the sweat off his palm. 

He tried the door again, turning the handle ever so slowly in hopes of delaying him of whatever was inside the room blocked by the door.

He screamed.

The lights had come on and his brother was home.

"Dave?" Bro looked at him as he entered the room Dave occupied. "Are you alright lil man?" 

Dave nodded weakly, his face pale and his palms sweaty.


	2. 2

Rose stood there trying to remain calm even though she knew she was moments away from breaking down. She stood there looking at her short black haired companion with worry showing in her abnormality of purple eyes. "John!" She yelled after him.

"I'm fine Rose!" He looked back at his blonde friend with his blue eyes. His body ached all around, pain shooting from his back, his arms, his legs, his chest and even his face. He was shaped in an awkward position with his body twisted in an unnatural position and cake splattered all over him. He saw his friend looking down at him with a conflicted expression slapped on her face. "It's fine, really." He grunted knowning that the more he spoke the more it hurt. He would definately be feeling this tomorrow when he woke up.

"Should I call for help?" She said leaning against the cliff that John had fallen from with his bycicle.

"No, it's fine, I'll climb out." He said. "Could you get some rope for my bike?" Rose nodded and left within seconds, leaving John resting on the muddy ground five yards under the cliff where he had fallen. He looked at the cake his dad had generously made him for his and Rose's bike riding adventures with disgust because he hated any and all Betty Crocker products (seriously they're everywhere!).

After taking a few huge breaths to calm the adrenalyn pulsing through his veins, he found the courage to get up. He tried first to adjust his body so that it didn't feel like he was performing as an acrobat, then he started to lift himself by pushing the ground with his hands in hopes he will rise, and lastly he used the cliff itself as a support of sorts.

Shortly after he saw a rope dangling beside him. "Here's the rope, now what?" His friend called out to him. He took the end of the rope and tied it to his bike.

"Hold onto the rope, I'm climbing up and we'll pull my bike together." He said as he put a hand on one of the rocks sticking out of the cliff. He started to climb the cliff, quickly regretting his decision. His hands hurt as though the rocks themselves were stabbing them; his arms burned still soar from falling down in the first place; and his muscles ached thoroughly with each attempt to reach the top of the cliff.

Bit by bit he climbed, and bit by bit he got dangerously close to falling again. "John?" He heard Rose call for him every so often. It took every fiber of John's being to keep himself from falling over again. At one point he couldn't climb anymore, his body wouldn't move. He felt sweat drip down his chin; his arms, bruised and tires, were shaking; his legs: no longer able to sustain his weight; he had started to give up. "John?" Rose's voice seemed ghastly shaken. She was worried.

After hearing Rose's urging voice, John found a little more strength entering his exhausted body. He lifted his right hand an inch and placed it on a rock sticking out of the small hill, he then lifted his left leg and did the same, then his left arm and lastly his right leg; repeating this process knowing his life depended on it. When he finally climbed to the top, he laid down on the ground as his arms and legs failed to sustain him.

"Don't EVER do that again John." Rose's normal persuasive tone slowly came back to her. "What about the bike?"

"We'll lift it when I can feel my hands again." He attempted to lift his right arm a little to block out the sun but to no avail.

"Whatever you say." Rose sighed sitting down beside him. Soon they were both laughing at John's near death experience. A figure started to emerge from the shadows of the forest, his right arm was elongated dropping to the floor. In a closer look you'd realize it was a boy holding a sword.

"Dave?" John grinned staring at the gloomy figure. After a moment's pause John's grin had dropped. "Dave?" John repeated, this time catching Dave's attention.

"Hey." Rose said getting up. The two pale and blonde individuals almost looked identical, you'd think they were siblings.

"Sup?" Dave says casually, John noticed Dave was acting weird... He knew the shades and facade were hiding something grim.

"Just trying to catch my breath!" John said cheery, hoping that might lift his mood.

"Are you okay?" John could feel Dave's eyes look at the fresh batch of bruises and cuts and other wounds on his body... That and the cake splattered all over John.

"Of course!" He said chipper.

"For someone who nearly died at least." Rose said unamused.

"What?" Dave seemed to be shaken up a little... John wondered what was going through his head.

"I'm fine! I promise!" He cheered smiling. Dave looked beyond him and at the bike covered in cake remains.

"That's a big fall dude, are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah. Although if you could help pulling the bike up I wouldn't complain." John sheepishly grinned at his best friend.

"Sure. Hand me the rope." Dave gave one of his meaningless grins and held the rope with Rose. Soon they were both pulling it, and with it John's bike. Soon and almost effortlessly they had the bike leaning on a tree away from the cliff... It was almost undamaged... Almost.

"Dad is going to kill me." John said slowly as he looked at the cake covered bike.

"And after all that effort you put in to save yourself from a second fall." Rose snickered.

"That's the worse part about it! He'll torture me with Betty Crocker cakes and I won't be able to handle that as well as I did with the cliff!" John joked a little.

"Then you certainly are a doomed teenager." Dave said. John noticed that Dave's mind seemed to be elsewhere... Something was troubling him... Something bad.

"Hey Dave help me up." John lifted his hand up at Dave and waved it around until Dave reluctantly helped him. Instead of letting Dave's hand go once he was up he started running in a direction pushing Dave with him, at first Dave didn't budge, but after a pleading look he finally agreed. "We'll be right back Rose!" He shouted to his friend.  
  
"What do you want John?" Dave asked looking at the blue eyed boy.   
  
"Do you want to tell me what you're thinking of?" Dave's disinterested expression never changed.   
  
"It's nothing." He chimed. After a few minutes of John's stern look Dave finally sighed speaking the truth. "I'm in trouble." He said simply.  
  
"What kind of trouble?" John continued to harass Dave with his questions.  
  
"Nothing I can't deal with..." He started before John cut him off with a glare. "How about this. I'll call you tomorrow and then we can talk. I don't want Rose coming in and hearing this... It's embarrassing enough as it is."   
  
"Fine." The two go back to Rose.

...

The next day John called him... he never answered. At first John thought he was ignoring him on purpose so he wouldn't know what Dave got himself into.

John decided to call his house thinking his phone had died. 

"Dave?" John hear the familiar voice of Dave's older brother.   
  
"Hi mr. Strider it's me, John... Is Dave not there?" John's mind starts to wonder. Was Dave in actual trouble?  
  
"No. And you're sure he's not with you?" This was the first time John heard Mr. Strider's monotoned voice refrain itself from sarcastic comments and actually indulge in some sort of emotion.  
  
"No..." Your mind travels back to Dave's words... 'I'm in trouble.'  
  
"Do you think you'd know where he could be? He's been gone for six hours now... Shit." John's lips feel dry and his heart pounds heavily wondering what the hell happened to his best friend.

"I... no..." His voice trembles.  
  
"You know something don't you?" Mr. Strider asks.  
  
"No sir." He lies.   
  
"Egbert, you better be telling the truth or I swear to all things you deem holy I'll-" He stopped his threats. "Sorry... I'm just worried. He's my lil brother." He admits... Was he crying? It sounded like it. "Call me if you find him." With that the call was dropped. John stood quietly, hearing the obnoxious beeps of the phone as they rang in a desperate attempt to let John know the call was over. After a few moments, John put the phone down and grabbed his jacket... He wasn't about to give up on Dave. As he opened the door to his house he saw a young girl standing outside.  
  
She had black hair and wore glasses like John and green eyes unlike John. "J-John?" Her voice trembled.  
  
"Yes?" John has seen her around Dave many times, they were really close friends after all. He remembered her name being Jade.  
  
"I know what happened to Dave." John blinked wondering why the hell she didn't come to him sooner... he then realized she had been standing on in front of his door for a while... Her hand was still up in the air, as if debating whether or not to knock on his door... of course she eventually put it back on her pocket nervously.  
  
"Can you tell me?" He asked.

"He... he did it! I told him not to... but he did it anyway! I should have insisted... but I didn't... and now he's gone... he's gone now..." She started mumbling spitting out random phrases as though she couldn't express her thoughts correctly. John put a hand on her shoulder.

"Do you think you can explain to me what happened to him... but calmer?" He asked and she nodded taking a deep breath.

"He chanted for Tall Jake to take him away... And he did." John's muscles stiffened... She couldn't honestly had believed that's what happened to Dave... Could she? "I have proof."

"Can you show me?" She nodded and started making her way to Dave's apartment with you following her.

After knocking on the door, you didn't dare look at Mr. Strider's eyes (technically shades). "Yeah?" You could practically feel him glare at you.

"Could we go to Dave's room? In hopes of finding any clues to his whereabouts?" Jade asked nicely. The 22 year old brother sighed and granted them passage.

"Thank you Mr. Strider." John said as he passed the older brother and followed Jade.

Once in the room, Jade took out a black envelope from a drawer. "Here. It's the comic... Gosh it was so mortifying. It all looked so real... It felt real too..." John took the envelope trembling a bit himself. So the comic was real after all? He hesitantly opened the envelope and then opened the comic expecting horrors he wouldn't dare imagine.

John kept looking at this in disbelief. "I don't understand..." He looked at Jade. "Is this some sort of prank?" He couldn't believe what she had just done. Didn't she care about Dave?

"I... I don't understand." Jade looked desperately at John. "They were there! There were horrible drawings there. I swear! I would never make this up." John stared at her for a moment thinking...

"Alright." He sighed. "Do you know where he got this?"

"No. He said he had connections... And that was it."

"Do you think you could find out?" He started looking for a copyright mark on the empty comic. 

"What's this?" Jade took the comic and looked at it for a moment. "Lucky Blue Dice?" She read the smeared ink. It was almost as if they didn't want you to read it... John picked up his phone and typed those words. 

"It's a store." He said once the search engines found what he was looking for. "In New York."

"Oh. Maybe that's where he bought it?"

"Only one way to find out... Do you like bus rides?" 

"Sure."

...

Both John and Jade had enough money on them for a bus ride from their current town, Clifton, to New York and back. Of course John had asked Rose for directions to that store, and of course Rose decided to tag along.

"So..." John said after a long and silent ride to the big city. "Any suggestions on how to get there?" He looked at the google map page Rose so kindly printed out for him.

"Follow the map maybe?" Rose sarcastically offered. 

"Right." He sighed. "This map makes no sense." He finally admitted. Rose rolled her eyes and took the map.

"Alright follow me." She said as she began to walk. The three of them walked for what seemed like hours, they eventually ended up walking around the city twice before ending up in the slums. Rose kept guiding them deeper and deeper into the bad part of New York. Both Jade and John felt awfully intimidated... They were, after all, walking around in a place where the crime rate was elevated. They kept at it for an eternity before reaching the Lucky Blue Dice store located deep within the heart of the slums. The three entered the shop. 

The Juggalo looked at them with a smile on his face. "Welcome to Lucky Blue Dice. The store of miracles." He said. "Would you like to buy these motherf-" He seemed to catch himself realizing these were only children around the age of sixteen he was talking to... He thought it would be best if he kept everything PG-13. Better sales usually come when the clerk doesn't cuss. "Comics?" He ended his sentence.

"Do you have Malice?" Rose cut straight to the point. 

"Can't say I do." He eyed her for a moment. "Why do you ask."

Rose snapped her fingers at John. "Show the good sir the comic Seth." John at first raised a brow to her as he took out the comic he had placed inside his bookbag... He then realized after much thought that Rose wanted to conceal their identities... Those were rather important things after all. "My good friend here recently purchased this comic from this very store. I would like one as well." Rose glared at the man with the tangled hair and clown face paint splattered on him, daring him to neglect her words.

"I suppose I can't deny that." He said after much thought. "But I'm not selling them anymore." He glared back with his aloof expression... John began to wonder if this man was high on anything.

Suddenly a loud noise was heard from the other side of the room. Jade had accidentally dropped a shelf. "Oh dear." She said glaring straight at Rose... Rose smirked and as soon as the clerk turned his back on the two of them she entered the back room. John stood there not really knowing what he could do to help. The clerk walked over to the knocked up shelf and started putting everything back together not really amused with Jade's display of clumsiness. But every time he started to put the comics back on the shelf, Jade would "accidentally" knock them all on the floor again. This kept going on and on until the clerk started to fume with anger.

"Get out." He said somehow still appearing to be high. "Right now."

"But sir..." Jade started. "I only want to help."

"Well you've done enough 'helping'. Now get out." John looked frantically around wondering what he could do... He started to make his way towards the two fighting figures and then 'tripped' onto a shelf, knocking it over as well. "What is wrong with you two motherfuc- kids." He glared at Jade until she stood up and awkwardly walked out the door and then started putting the books back on the shelf. He then glared at John. "Don't try to help me little bro." 

"Wouldn't dream of it." John said standing up. He watched Rose get out of the back room and then out of the floor. "I'm sorry for the inconvenience!" He looked at the clerk almost feeling bad for him. "Can I still buy a comic?" The clerk looked at him with his high expression and smiled. 

"Sure little bro." 

...

After walking back to the safe area of New York, Jade, Rose and John sat down in a bench and carefully opened the stolen comic. 

Jade gasped sadly.

Rose blinked in surprise.

John's mouth was opened in shock.

In the first page of the comic, was their friend Dave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the uber crappy drawing at the end. I was rushed due to the fact that i was supposed to be leaving six minutes ago. I promise the next few ones will be better.  
> Also if you actually happened to like that, you can find me in SassyAnge1@deviantart.com


	3. 3

Dave couldn't believe his eyes. Only a few moments ago he was sleeping in his bed with his sword in hand... for precautions of course. He wasn't afraid of some legend... not highly afraid at least...

In front of him was an automaton shaped like a giant monkey. It leaped toward him and he easily dodged it. He looked at the poor girl... Or old woman laying dead beside him.

As soon as he arrived in this mechanical paradise of gears and screws there was a scream. He followed it because that's clearly what one does when hearing someone scream and found a corpse with a mechanical monkey on top of it.

"Holy shit." You heard a yell. Then you saw a scrawny looking boy with a screw driver on his hand being attacked by the monkey. The boy swung the screw driver at the monkey making it fall to the ground with a thud. He then jabbed the screw driver on the monkey's chest, damaging the monkey to the point of malfunction.

"What was that thing?" Dave couldn't stop staring at the weird looking mechanical beast.

"Don't know. Don't care. " The boy shrugged looking at the thing. He then glared at Dave eyeing him up and down. "Hey." He said. "I'm Karkat." Dave swore the boy yelled every single thing he spoke.

"Dave." He replied looking at the other through his shades. The boy had a british accent which made his weird need to yell seem even more amusing. His hair was black to contrast his pale freckled skin. It was his eyes though... Those were what got Dave's attention. They were blood shot red... much like his own. The blonde boy caught himself staring and decided to look back at the mechanical robot.

Karkat sighed and bent down to pick up the metallic monkey. "Make sure I don't get attacked will you?" He asked.

"What about her?" Dave looked at the poor woman dead on the ground.

"Her name was Nepeta. She was a high spirited one... She's dead though. There's no use in mourning her here. We'll only get killed." He sighed once more. Dave noticed something on her hand... it was a ticket. He picked it up and Karkat eyed him. "Give me that." He ordered. Dave looked at him a little confused. He reluctantly gave the boy the ticket though. Karkat managed to put it in his pocket. Karkat set the monkey down and bent over Nepeta... "You actually got it huh? Rest in peace my friend." Using all of his strength, Karkat picked up the robot and began to carry it again. "Thanks dimwit. Watch my back eh?"

"Alright." Karkat began to walk down the long corridor filled with gears. "Where-"

"How about I start explaining and you leave the questions for later?" Karkat interrupted Dave who simply shrugged ignoring Karkat's rude self. "You're in Sgrub... Or Sburb as you yankees call it. You can either see this place as your own personal miserable hell or your deathbed. Yes, there are ways out. No, it's not easy to get out. Yes, it's real. No, you're not dreaming. That girl back there, with the short black hair and bright green eyes, she was trying to get a ticket... which she did. The tickets are your way out.. the white ones at least. With the white tickets you can go anywhere... even home. However, the white tickets are a bloody hell to find. Black tickets can take you anywhere in Sgrub... and they are easy to find. This monkey on my back that killed Nepeta, we nicknamed it the Chitter. Once it bites you it steals your life... or at least the time you'd be spent alive. There are tons of these little obnoxious monstrosities just waiting to steal your time... which is why Nepeta looks so old now. They do it to power other monstrosities in this land. By the way you're in the Land of Heat and Clockwork. Sgrub is divided into lands, the train connects each and every land... of course you could always walk, although the danger is extreme and not worth the effort. What other mediocre piece of information am I leaving out? Oh right, in here it's survival of the fittest. Either you live or you don't. You decide." Dave hadn't paid much attention to Karkat's rant but he got the gist of it. "If you still have any questions... save them for when we get inside." Dave rolled his eyes.

After a few more minutes of walking in silence with only the hum of machinery to be heard, the two boys reached a metallic door. Karkat knocked on it in an interesting rhythm, probably a secret code. Someone knocked back from the other side but in a different pattern. Karkat once more knocked. Then the other knocked. Then karkat scoffed. "Open the bloody door already shitstick. Or are you too incapable of performing a simple task such as that?" the door immediately flew open and a third boy appeared. He looked scrawnier then Karkat, but taller. He had a brown mohawk and brown eyes that didn't contrast his tanned skin.

"Karkat! You're alive!" Dave noticed Tavros was talking slowly, he also noticed Karkat's eyes were focused on the boy's lips.

"Of course I am numbnutt. Now get this irritable device off my soar back and onto Equius' table... And tell Equius I need to talk to him." Karkat said the last words slowly... as though he felt bad for Equius.

"You managed to haul one back?" The boy asked.

"No of course not. This thing on my back isn't one of those time vampires. It's actually my art project from fifth grade. I somehow found it in the comic! Stop asking stupid questions and get this shit off my back before I get a hernia." Dave blinked a little surprised by Karkat's response. The boy simply smiled awkwardly and picked up the monkey thing. The weight of the device made him arch over and struggle to get it to it's destination. "Thanks Tavros." Karkat stretched his back and looked at you. "Alright, do you have any questions?"

"Yeah." Dave noticed Karkat's red eyes were looking at his lips. He didn't pay much thought to that... maybe the bot had a weird quirk. "What is this place?"

"A refugee camp. Anyone unfortunate enough to have been brought here is welcomed in this enclosed location." Karkat explained. Dave looked around, seeing for the first time the desperate look on everybody's faces. They all looked poor and hungry, as if they had given up on life. "Anything else?"

"No. Not right now." Karkat shrugged and turned his back on Dave and began walking towards one of the people in the camp.   
  
"Are they ready?" He asked the little boy sitting against the wall with his eyes closed. He smiled at Karkat opening his eyes and made weird hand gestures that Dave didn't really understand. "Thanks." Karkat said patting the boy on his head. The boy smiled once more and lifted two metallic objects... Dave recognized them as sickles. "Alright I'm off." He said standing up, the boy's smile faded.

"Uh... Karkat? Equius is ready to talk to you." Tavros said once entering the main room through a doorway. 

"Well shit." Karkat sighed. "Alright, I'll go talk to him." The sickles were buckled onto a holster on Karkat's utility belt. Karkat entered the same room Tavros was in a while ago. Silence fell the room bitterly. Dave decided he looked awkward standing in the middle of the room so he decided to sit by the boy Karkat was talking to a while ago. The boy made no protest.

"Hey." Dave tried... The boy simply stared at him. "Or not..." Dave sighed looking at his sword on the ground beside him. "So this place is crazy right?" Silence. "It's kind of interesting though... I've never seen robotic monkeys before." Dave hated the silence... It was not only a reminder of how hopeless everyone was but it also made Dave feel hopeless.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE'S DEAD?" A yell was heard from across the room. 

"Karkat..." The little boy whispered. A few more moments of silence passed before Karkat exited the room with a grim expression on his face. He looked at Tavros.

"Where are the barrels?" He asked monotone. Tavros looked at Karkat for a moment but then went into a different room and came back with two barrels. 

"Are you sure you want to go alone? Uh... I don't think it's very safe." Tavros said catching Dave's attention.

"Look, I went out earlier to see if there were many of them out there... There aren't. I'll be fine unless those time stealing shits decide that I look like a great candidate to gnawl on and-" His voice was drowned by the loud noise of a tall lean man barging in the room.

"Did you bring her life crystal at least?" He asked. Dave examined him... He wore broken sunglasses, he looked like he was sweating a gallon and his long black hair was neatly brushed back. 

"It should still be in the chitter I left at your work station." Tavros said, Karkat looked like he hadn't heard a single thing. Karkat looked at the two and then scowled picking up the barrels. 

"Later." He grumbled. He then stopped and turned around to smile at the little boy that he talked to earlier. He left.

"Karkat..." The little boy whispered. Dave looked at him confused. He knew outside was dangerous... But it seemed like Karkat could handle himself very well against those chitters all you had to do was listen to the sound of their clanking gears. "Please sir.. go after him." The boy interrupted Dave's train of thought. Dave blinked, and then sighed.

"Alright, beats sitting here all day." He stood up and walked towards the door. The tall muscle man that had barged into the room had left and Tavros was looking at Dave. "What? Do I have something on my face?" 

"No..." Tavros mumbled. Dave shrugged and opened the door exiting. There was only one direction to go, forward... He was glad for that, if there were multiple hallways to choose from he'd surely get lost. With each step Dave heard the clashing of metal... Dave hustled his walk into a jog, and then to a run following that noise.

"Gog damned shits." Karkat yelled. "Where the hell were you pathetic things hiding earlier?" A small metallic fox leaped at Karkat but was blocked by one of his sickles and then thrown off into the rest of the metallic fox gang. One leaped at Karkat from behind, it's obvious noise should have been enough to inform Karkat from the attack but strangely enough he didn't react, instead he cringed in pain but quickly ran backwards into a wall, crushing the fox. Dave frowned confused as he hustled to help Karkat. 

"Karkat?" Either Karkat ignored Dave completely, or he was too focused in the battle to react to Dave. Dave heard more metallic footsteps on the background, reinforcements to finish off Karkat most likely. Even as Dave ran to Karkat, he was too far away to actually help the boy. All he could do was yell at the boy and try to get his attention, but that didn't seem to work. And if Dave wasn't confused enough by the boy, he was more confused now as Karkat calmly stood up no longer ready for combat and relaxed as a red substance started to spawn from his back... where the fox had scratched him. Dave's run halted as he stared at the mysterious boy in front of him. "Blood?" His mouth opened slightly in shock but quickly closed shut. 

 

 

The red substance started to form shapes of blades, and the brute sorcery of it all somehow made Karkat's hair and clothes flail about in the wind. The blood stabbed the five foxes angrily over and over again until all of them no longer moved. Dave stood there baffled wondering how it is Karkat could control his own blood. After a while the feint sound of footsteps faded and the blood dropped on the floor uselessly. Karkat picked up the barrels and continued walking as if nothing had happened. Dave, of course, ran after him.

"Karkat... what the hell was that?" He tried, but Karkat didn't even turn around to acknowledge his existence. "Are you giving me the silent treatment?" No response. "Fine, I'll just keep talking to myself in hopes that maybe one day senpai will notice me." Dave sighed. "Come on dude, I just called you senpai, that's probably the highest honor you'll ever get. Normally when one gets called senpai by an American they would jump and squeal like a fifteen year old girl that just met Justin Bieber. Honestly don't they have better taste in music? Like Will Smith when he still rapped. One can not refuse the powerful Will Smith. You like Will Smith right? I think you do. Since you didn't say no I'm going to take that as a yes. Did you know I also rap? Since Will Smith stopped rapping my new dream is to rap against Obama. Imagine beating the president of the United States with an epic rap battle to the death. People will oogle me and praise the ground I walk on... Not like they don't do that right now." Dave looked at Karkat.. his back was a bloody mess... there were still some metal claws logged into his skin where the fox had scratched him... It was worse then he originally thought it was. "Karkat... are you alright?" Dave extended an arm and put it on Karkat's shoulder. Immediately Karkat jumped and spinned around dropping the barrels and raising his sickle as if to defend himself against more metallic monsters but seeing it was only Dave he lowered his arms and sighed a relief and then glared at him clearly not satisfied by the surprise.

"What the hell are you doing here shitbreath? Don't you have better things to do than to follow around a bloody bloke that's clearly on an important trip for useless shits too busy pitying their own existence to do jack shit?" Karkat made it clear that he was pissed. "Wait.." Karkat suddenly felt self conscious. "Did you see something out of the blue?" His expression shifted from angry to worried but only a little, most of his expression was engraved into a scowl.

"No?" Dave lied. "What are you talking about?" You could see the relief in Karkat's eyes. Dave thought for a bit and came to a realization that he knew he should have come up with before. "You're deaf aren't you?"

"Yeah. So what? Are you going to cry a river for me?" Karkat snorted.

"Nah. Real men don't cry. What happened to your back?" Dave quickly changed subjects debating on whether Karkat was comfortable talking about his disability or not.

"I had to deal with some shit on the way here. I'm surprised you got out scotch free." He said putting his sickles away and picking up the barrels. Dave took them from Karkat though. "Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?" He growled.

"Well I have a feeling you'd be shouting about how useless I am unless I do something productive as I follow you around like some creepy stalker kid." He grinned. 

"Fine, just don't break them." Karkat sighed.

"What are they for anyway?"

"How do you think the poor bastards are fed?" Karkat answered.

"You mean you're coming here to get food?" 

"Yes, should I repeat myself or are you done wasting my time?"

"I think I want to waste your time a little more. Could you repeat yourself five more times? Pretty please? I promise there will be a cherry on top." Karkat rolled his eyes.

"Lets just get going already since you insist on tagging along." He sighed and turned around clearly not up for a conversation.

"You know, you're not so bad." Dave said knowing Karkat couldn't hear him. "Pineapples." He said randomly. "Guitars." He started saying random words in the air for entertainment knowing no one would hear him. " _Electric_ guitars." He kept doing that until Karkat stopped walking and turned to him.

"From now on, be extra careful. Around the feeding posts there are usually a higher concentration of mechanical beasts." He said taking his sickles out of their holsters. "Maybe I should be the one carrying those... After all I do have a disadvantage." Dave thought about if for a moment.

"I'm sure you can handle whatever comes our way. Think of yourself as a knight in shining armor gettin' ready to defeat the monstrous enemies endangering your damsel in distress, but you know they can't handle your epic fighting skills and so you give them a chance with your disadvantage." Karkat blushed a little and frowned a lot.

"What the actual hell Dave? Did you hit your head on your way here?" He grumbled. "Urg, never mind. Let's just get going. The sooner we leave this place the better." He turned around again and kept walking.

"Poptarts. Do you think there will be poptarts in the food thing? I hope there are poptarts. I love poptarts. Mainly the strawberry ones. Holy shit imagine if there was a poptart revolution? Either we'd be doomed a terrible fate of dying by poptarts or we'd be in poptart heaven. I think I'd want to die with a strawberry poptart. I can see it now. I'd be standing there hugging the strawberry poptart goodness and just get eaten by it in the process. That would be the most ironic death of all. Wait no, second most ironic. The first would be drowning by apple juice. Don't you think?" Dave snickered. He knew he sounded like a toddler but he didn't really care. After walking around a few more hallways they finally reached the food dispensing room. 

"Give me a barrel." Karkat ordered. As soon as Dave gave him the barrel he put it under a hose looking thing and pressed the big red button. Instantly a brown shit looking substance was dispensed into the barrel. "Tasty looking right?" Karkat mumbled not expecting Dave to respond.

"Yeah. I think I've never seen something as amazing as that... Oh wait... there was that one time in kindergarten when I shat my pants." Karkat looked at the boy and smirked a bit. 

"As much as I love hearing your kindergarten stories of shitting your pants... I'm going to go back to doing something productive and not nearly as disgusting." He said taking the full barrel and replacing it with the other empty one. Once they were both filled Karkat started to pick up the barrels but something caught his eyes. He left the barrels on the ground and gritted his teeth. "We have company." He said.

"Yeah. I realize that." Dave drew his sword and glared at the chitter that glared back. It jumped on Karkat who was probably too exhausted from so much bloodloss to fight it for long. He managed to block the chitter with his sickles. Dave was about to stab the chitter, but it leaped away from the sickles and back onto the ground only to attack Dave. The sheer force of the chitter made Dave stumble back onto the ground. The chitter's teeth were only stopped by the blade of Dave's sword but it's claws started scratching at him. Karkat punt the chitter across the room.

"Holy shit!" Karkat yelled from the pain. "I'm glad I'm wearing steel tipped shoes." He said to himself. "Get up." He offered a hand to Dave still wincing from the pain a bit. The chitter got up quickly, and so did Dave. "Grab the barrels and go, I'll take care of it." Dave looked at the boy.

"Why don't you do that? I'm staying here." Karkat looked at Dave a little surprised, wondering if he read Dave's lips correctly.

"Do whatever you want shitstick." He said and returned his gaze to the chitter that terrorized them. He lifted his sickles and dashed towards the chitter, who started to leap at Karkat once more. Karkat dodged and caught the chitter with the curve of his sickle, cutting it's stomach. Dave then stabbed his sword onto the chitter's head, damaging the chitter to the point of malfunction. "Good job, now let's get the barrels and go." He said putting his sickles away and picking up both barrels. "You take on the knight business now." He started walking back. Dave smirked and followed him on high alert. 

When they got back Karkat basically collapsed on the floor after setting the barrels down. Dave had to set him on a table in a odd room deep inside the hideout where Tavros took care of him. Dave wondered if he should ask Tavros anything about Karkat's weird blood manipulating ability... He eventually decided against it.

"So why does Karkat have red eyes?" He asked instead.

"It's a rare mutation, he says." Tavros answered taking out the last metallic claw from Karkat's back and pouring some more rubbing alcohol. "To be honest I'm not sure what it is." Once bandaging Karkat Tavros looked at Dave. "Thanks for uh... helping him out." He said shyly. 

"No problem." Tavros then bandaged the scratches Dave got from the chitter. After his work was done, he left the two in the empty room. "... Why is it always so quiet in here?" Dave asked. Karkat grunted opening his eyes. Dave looked at the boy and sat down comfortably on a chair. 

"Hey garlic breath." Karkat's face seemed softer than usual... most likely because he had just woken up and had to remind himself to put on a judgmental look.

"Garlic breath? You sure can get creative." Dave said sarcastically.

"Yeah. Whatever." Karkat's scowl was showing clearly on his face. "Why are you here anyway?"

"Well one night ago I decided to do this really stupid ritual to get myself dragged into this place." 

"Well no dip. I meant in my room." Dave looked around. "Yes, this is my room. Such a shocker right?"

"Usually I wouldn't really go into someone's room unless they took me into a few dates first... but I made an exception with you." Karkat's face turned mildly red.

"Could you be any more insufferable?" He lifted himself into a sitting position.

"Yep." Karkat rolled his eyes once more and stood up. "Are you sure that's a bright idea?" Dave eyed the boy.

"Yes I'm sure mother. I think I'm old enough to stand up and walk all on my own! Aren't you proud?" 

"And yet you call me insufferable." 

"An eye for an eye." Karkat shrugged and walked over to the door. "Ready to eat the crap we hawled over here?"

"I was born ready." It turns out Dave was not born ready. He never thought he'd have to put something so fowl in his mouth and still have to call it food.

"Karkat." The muscular man from earlier suddenly showed up in front of Karkat.

"Yeah? What do you want Equius?" Karkat tried not to choke on the food in his mouth.

"I am going to the Clock Tower." He told Karkat. "Do you want to come with me?"

"The barking Clock Tower? Why the bloody hell would you want to go there?" Karkat gagged.

"What's the Clock Tower?" Dave asked intrigued.

"It's where the Time Keeper is located... He's the one that makes all of those robotic animals you see..." Karkat explained and then looked at Equius again. "I'm not going to dig my own grave."

"I'll go." Said Dave.

"What?" Equius looked at him confused. "Are you sure?" Karkat looked at Dave confused, clearly he didn't read his lips.

"Yeah, I guess going to the Clock Tower seems like fun. I might as well find out who it is that nearly killed my little friend here."

"I'm not little you shit." Karkat growled and then sighed. "Fine, I'll go with you. I have no idea on what you plan to do... But I guess a little sight seeing never hurt anyone before." 

"Thank you Karkat."

"Whatever." Karkat mumbled. Dave looked at him a little surprised... Why did he suddenly change his mind? Well whatever the reason, Dave would find out eventually.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay i lied, i'm being lazy with the drawings so guess what? you're screwed. you're getting crap doodles.  
> congratulations!


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